Composting for Dummies

“There are more microbes in a teaspoon of healthy soil than are people on the planet.” — Drawdown

I used to be afraid of my composter. I’d dump kitchen scraps in a countertop bin, avoid them until they grew slimy, and then after far too long, muster up the courage to take this sludge soup outside to my composter, adding it to the larger olfactory nightmare. Eventually, I’d roll the barrel into the woods to join the burial ground of failed composters. Calling my history with composting trial and error would be generous.

After a few years, my chef friend Ellen Greaves said, “How could you be bad at composting?” (Ellen doesn’t actually know me very well.) “Seriously. Composting only requires two ingredients. Brown stuff and green stuff.”

Hmmm … brown stuff. I’d never thought to add leaves, cardboard or other “brown stuff” that you need to make compost.

While farmers have been effortlessly transforming food scraps into nutrient-rich compost for thousands of years, we post-industrial types have found sophisticated and expensive ways to waste the waste. Food is the largest contributor to landfills in the U.S., accounting for 24 percent of all trash, according to the EPA. The average U.S. household throws out more than $1,850 worth of food each year.

As food scraps get buried under massive amounts of trash, they decompose and becoming anaerobic. This creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas that has roughly 80 times more warming power than CO2. Fun fact: Your intestinal tract is generally anaerobic, so the gases from ones’ farts are similar to those in a landfill.

Composting, on the other hand, recycles food waste into rich, nutritional fertilizer, or what gardeners call “black gold.” When you repurpose food scraps to feed the soil, you create healthier, more resilient soil.

This is especially important out on the East End, where our sandy soil needs all the help it can get. Any gardener who’s ever felt like they were planting in a sandbox, knows that soil here doesn’t exactly lead the microbial good life.

Stronger, nutrient-rich soil also reduces the need for synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, which themselves create significant CO2 emissions in production, and cause nitrogen pollution in our bays. Compost also absorbs storm water before it can cause flooding and beach erosion. Plus, rather than emitting greenhouse gas emissions, compost reduces them by sequestering carbon back into the soil.

In a perfect world, there’d be no compost. Uneaten food, even if composted, squanders a whole host of resources: seed, fertilizer, water, land, and all the fuel it took to grow, harvest, package, transport and finally cook.

Try to look at everything you’d compost and ask if it can somehow be used. Fry potato skins. Make lemon zest out of lemons. Turn vegetable scraps into broth. Once you’ve used a plant every conceivable way, composting should be the last resort.

There are a lot of ways to compost, and they all work. Follow the basic recipe of half brown stuff and half green stuff, but don’t overthink it. Given my biology experiment gone wrong, I think you can’t really have too much brown. Compost should be about as wet as a damp sponge. If it’s too dry, add greens. If it’s wet and smelly, add brown and turn it more frequently.

“Browns,” which are high in carbon and help aerate, can consist of everything from dry leaves and twigs to cardboard, coffee filters and napkins. Grocery bags, newspaper and nonglossy junk mail are just soil waiting to happen.

“Greens” which are high in nitrogen and keep your compost moist, typically consist of veggies and fruit, grass clippings and coffee grounds. Surprisingly compostable items also include chips, candy, nuts and cut flowers. Post-it notes, popcorn, matches, and even fireplace ashes can be composted.

Regarding what not to compost, imagine your composter as a vegetarian: Don’t feed it meats, dairy, fatty oils or chicken bones. Don’t throw compostable bags in a home composter as they break down very slowly. Ditto compostable plates, lids, forks and takeout containers. A list of what to compost can be downloaded from easthamptoncompost.org.

Ideally, compost is “done” when it’s a beautiful, rich earthy material that looks like Oreo cookie crumbs. Doneness however, is relative. The Goldilocks middle amount of time it takes to make compost is two to three months (more if you’re me). If you’re impatient, and it’s mulchy, it’s still good for garden beds. Let it sit too long and you get dirt, which might not have as many nutrients but is still beneficial.

These days, you can find a variety of elegant countertop buckets, but it’s just as easy to reuse a container you already have, like a coffee can, popcorn tin or old paint bucket with a tight lid kept under the sink. Great trick: Store food scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer until you’re ready to add them to the outside composter.

The main decision in choosing a back yard composter is between a rotating tumbler or going pile style. I prefer a tumbler, because it needs less love than a compost pile. Turning it once in a while will make it easy to aerate, and helps the materials break down faster. It’s perfect for those who travel or just like a good neglect-a-thon.

Composting pile style can be larger and handle more yard waste. Layer browns and greens, lasagna style so that the top of the pile actively breaks down material, while the bottom of the pile provides finished compost. You need to keep the pile damp, and stir it often.

Making a pile style container DIY is easy. Use chicken wire, wine crates, a trash can or even old dresser drawers. Large bins can be made from shipping pallets that you can pick up for free at any garden center. The easiest, yet messiest option is to just pile materials on the ground without an enclosure.

If you’d rather not compost at home, now you can let someone else do it for you. While the first municipal compost program started in San Francisco in 1996, and New York City has recently made composting mandatory, Suffolk County is finally stepping up its game. Food scrap drop-off locations have just opened up in Southampton, Sag Harbor and East Hampton. With farmers markets starting up soon, you can also bring your scraps to the Rewinding table where volunteers can answer any questions. Follow the guidelines for what can be composted, as no poor volunteer wants to fish out our diapers and cat litter.

Looking back, I’m amazed that I avoided walking 15 feet to put food scraps in a composter, yet would haul my stinky trash to the transfer station, and then drive to the nursery to pay top dollar to haul heavy bags of compost back home again.

Since the days of making toxic sludge, I’ve come a long way. My composter has two compartments: One I’m continually filling, and one that does its thing without me. I’ve finally figured out what brown means, and have begun keeping a bin of dried leaves on hand.

I’ve also discovered that with very little help, compost always eventually happens.

More Information:

Composting Guide Southampton (southamptontownny.gov/2051/Composting-Guide): Simple guide to composting at home. Bring food scraps to Sag Harbor and North Sea transfer stations. Yard waste also accepted at North Sea station. Pick up compost, mulch and wood chips from Southampton transfer station for free.

ReWild Long Island (rewildlongisland.org/compost): Lists food scrap drop off locations around East Hampton, including farmers markets. Offers composting information and tips for saving food scraps, and details for volunteering at farmers markets. Offers a 40 percent discount on the countertop FoodCycler system. Discount on back yard composters available soon.

Food Cycler (foodcycler.com): For the compost curious, an easy to use indoor composter. Add food scraps, press start and voila! You have a healthy soil amendment. Even breaks down bones, pits and shells. Uses little energy.